


Mistakes

by Headphone_Love



Series: Bad Things Happen Bingo [2]
Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Bad Things Happen Bingo, Drabble, Gen, Hurt Keith (Voltron), Insecure Lance (Voltron), Keith (Voltron) is a Good Friend, Minor Violence, Platonic Relationships, Tumblr Prompt, Tumblr request, Worried Lance (Voltron)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-07-07
Updated: 2018-07-07
Packaged: 2019-06-06 22:04:11
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings, No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,845
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15204425
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Headphone_Love/pseuds/Headphone_Love
Summary: Lance was known as the sharpshooter of Voltron.Even sharpshooters had their off days.





	Mistakes

_“Cover me, Lance!”_

Lance huffed, following Keith easily from above and shooting when needed. “Yeah, yeah. Just worry about your sword skills, mullet. Lancey’s got a groove going here.”

 _“I would if you were actually doing your job,”_ Keith’s voice hissed through the microphone. Lance narrowed his eyes and shot an enemy that had nearly jumped on Keith’s back.

“A ‘thank you’ would be a better response considering I’ve saved your ass like three times.”

_“Right, with shots that have nearly hit me in the process.”_

“Stop talking to me unless you have a real reason. You’re distracting me,” Lance insisted. Whether he admitted it or not, Keith talking to him actually kept him somewhat calm. If Keith was able to argue with him while fighting, it meant he was confident enough to get out of it unscathed.

_“Quiznak!”_

Lance’s shoulders tensed at the incoming soldiers headed towards Keith. He could hear the other cursing, and so instead of restarting their banter, Lance just focused on shooting.

_“Just a little longer, guys. Pidge almost has it cracked.”_

Lance could stall a little longer.

One enemy there.

Another there.

And one to the le—

The feeling of being lifted from his position made Lance let out a shocked yelp, his eyes landing on the creature who had its hand around his throat.

“Human,” it gurgled with a look of disdain, Lance nearly dropping his bayard for a moment as it squeezed tighter. Lance choked, feet kicking as sharp nails seemed to pierce the skin,  Lance shouting in pain and vision going blurry.

_“Lance? The hell is going on?!”_

Snapping out of the daze he’d felt creeping over his senses, Lance lifted his legs kicking harshly at the monster and shooting it in the chest at point-blank range. Then he was falling, hitting the side of the cliff and rolling until he hit a flat surface. He coughed at the pain in his ribs and neck, but without a second thought, he tried to orient himself and regain his breath.

_“Lance, I kind need help here!”_

“Sorry, mullet, gimme a second,” Lance said hoarsely, aiming and firing as soon as he could.

One.

Two.

A cough that brought a metallic taste into his mouth.

He stood, inhaling deeply as he aimed, pressing the trigger once he exhaled. A grin crossed his lips at the fact that the monster went down, but when Keith did too, it fell.

_“Lance, was that you?”_

“Sorry! I...I didn’t…”

 _“Well didn’t doesn’t fix it,”_ Keith said with pain evident in his voice. He was still down when an enemy popped almost out of nowhere, swinging towards Keith’s head until it was blown back. Lance could feel the sweat forming on his forehead from how hard he was concentrated, lips pursed.

“I gotcha, buddy.”

 _“Yeah, kinda too literal for my tastes,”_ Keith replied and damnit if Lance wasn’t proud of the accidental joke he’d made. _“Let’s keep that to a minimum, Lance.”_

When Keith got up and started fighting again, Lance couldn’t help but notice that he was definitely off his game now.

When Lance ended up shooting Keith again after a misfire, he was sure Keith was going to kill him if these aliens didn’t first.

“Obviously shooting isn’t working right now,” Lance spoke as he jumped from his position on the perch and skidded down the mountain as quickly as he could. It was killer on his feet, but his focus was on the fact that Keith’s movements were getting slower and a lot sloppier.

Even a gunman like Lance could see it.

“The hell are you doing, man?” Keith called out as Lance ran towards him, slicing away with his gun-turned-broadsword. It was only when he’d reached the other that he could see the extent of the damage. Half of him wondered how Keith was still even standing, the other half knowing that the former red paladin was too stubborn to admit he was injured.

“Covering you, Red! Keep up!”

“You’re the one that needs to keep up!”

The broadsword had been a lot better of an idea considering that he could cover Keith’s weak points like his right side and any blind spots.

When Keith collapsed and ground his teeth, Lance spat out an expletive and moved in front of him to block an attack. 

"Keith, you good?" 

"As good as someone with shot wounds could be," Keith replied as he worked to re-summon his sword.

Lance wasn't sure how much longer he'd last in that condition.

“Hey Hunk, buddy? How much longer?” Lance asked into his mic, lifting a leg and kicking one of the aliens in the gut. "Not rushing, but kinda rushing?"

 _“We’re right there,"_ Hunk tried to assure, but when Lance noticed how pale Keith was getting, he panicked. 

“Well get there faster!” he shouted before being punched and sent flying back, groaning but returning to his feet as quickly as he could. Keith had long started to fight again, swinging away as if he didn’t have blood covering half his body.

Lance wondered if being sick would be an inappropriate response to the sight of Keith's blood.

_“We got the information. I repeat, we've got it! Get back to your lions!”_

Not waiting for a second longer, Lance grabbed Keith’s wrist and pulled him along, the other stumbling but keeping up as they made their escape.

Lance wasn’t sure what Keith’s motivation had been, but his own was to get their new leader into a healing pod as soon as possible.

Especially considering the serious injuries had been his own fault.

 

* * *

 

“I can’t believe you shot me three times,” Keith said, as Lance walked him over to one of the examination tables. Lance had been too guilt-ridden to change before Keith got out, waited for his partner to be cleared so they could at least talk. 

He had a lot of apologizing to do, even if his team had assured him that even sharpshooters made mistakes.

“I know," Lance agreed. Three shots was three too many. 

“You could have killed me."

“I _know_ ,” Lance repeated, this time a bit strained. “I kind of noticed that when I was carrying you towards the healing pods and you were halfway gone, Keith.”

Going silent, Keith sighed, seeming to accept that Lance knew how dangerous his stunts had been. 

“I’m sorry. I’m not entirely sure what came over me, but whatever it was doesn’t excuse the fact that you could have died from my bad calls.”

Keith, unsure of what to do considering that he hadn’t expected an actual apology, cleared his throat and rubbed his neck. 

“Uh, thanks. But you didn’t look so hot when you showed up to help with your neck and stuff,” he assured. “We were both pretty out of it considering how many of them there were.”

“Doesn’t matter,” Lance insisted. “I put the mission and you in danger, and I’m sorry. You’re the leader and the fact that I _shot_ you…”

“Was a mistake. I don’t blame you for it, so you shouldn’t either,” Keith said, placing a hand on his shoulder. “How are your injuries?”

Lance shrugged, waving a hand and nodding. “I’m fine. Definitely not as painful as getting shot several times,” he said with a small smile.

“Four if you count right before we left when you hit me in the leg.”

Lance’s eyes went wide. “I did?!” he whispered in horror.

The leg was a life or death area. There is so much that could go wrong when hit in the leg. If they hadn’t been called back when they had, Lance might have been the reason Keith had his dance with death.

“Yeah,” Keith said, swinging his legs easily. “But the pod took care of it.”

"Coran should look at it just in case," Lance muttered, about to leave before Keith grabbed his shoulder again.

“If you think I’m that fragile, I might just have to punch you,” Keith warned with narrowed eyes. “Stop with the wallowing and accept the fact that you made a mistake. Besides, you realized that your bayard as a gun wasn’t effective and switched it accordingly. That counts for something.”

“Well it was either that or watch you go down, and paladins don’t work like that, Keith.”

Surprisingly, Keith smiled slightly, nodding his head. “They don’t,” he agreed.

Lance balked, not sure if he was more shocked at the lack of anger or the fact that Keith had _smiled_ at the person who'd nearly killed him.

“You...you’re smiling. And not sarcastically?.”

Keith nodded. “Yeah well, maybe I’m still feeling the effects of blood loss or something.”

"Was that a joke? Did you just make a funny about almost dying?"

"I guess I did. It's probably my teammate's awful humor rubbing off on me," Keith said with a smirk, Lance gasping. 

"How'd we go from insulting my on-field self to my off-field self?" 

"It's a lot easier than you'd think, really," Keith said as Lance rolled his neck and sighed. 

"But really, I'm—"

“Don’t,” Keith warned. “We were having a moment and everything. If you apologize again I’ll get Coran and tell him your sick in the head. ”

“Fine,” Lance agreed, leaning against the table. “I just wish I could have done more to help.”

"I mean, you got me out alive. That's pretty helpful."

Lance couldn't help the small chuckle that left his lips as he nodded. 

“You also managed to get out of an alien’s grasp and immediately return to helping without so much as a mention of being injured. You might have made some mistakes, but you didn’t run away like you would have before. That was pretty brave for a former cargo pilot.”

Lance squinted his eyes, leaning toward Keith with a look of pure confusion. “Are you...comforting me?”

“No,” Keith said with a shake of his head. “I’m telling you what I noticed.”

“Then you’re complimenting me?”

Keith scowled. “I've never met someone who managed to ruin every bonding moment in a different way each time.”

Lance wasn’t sure if he’d entered some twilight zone, but it seemed like Keith really wasn’t upset with him. If accidentally shooting him didn’t make Keith want a new partner, then maybe Lance would live to be the red paladin another day.

“Thanks, Keith. Really.”

Relaxing, Keith nodded. “Not a problem, but the next time you shoot me, I’m siccing Black on you.”

“Only if you want Red to defend my honor. He’s a loyal guy,” he said, holding out a fist. “Lucky for you, your partner takes after his lion,” he said confidently, Keith lifting his own fist to hit Lance’s lightly.

“Lucky you I'm the leader now and have to tolerate you. Now go get Coran before I take everything I said back." 

Grinning, Lance did as he was told for once, pausing only when Keith called him back. 

"Lance?"

"Yeah?"

"Voltron is a team that still needs its sharpshooter. Don't forget that."

Lance smirked, turning and holding up a hand. 

"As if I would, mullet."


End file.
